Wauwatosa-based Briggs & Stratton Corp. says it will now need to cut around 100 jobs as it moves production of certain product lines at its Burleigh Street factory to facilities in New York State.
The final job cuts also won’t come until Nov. 25 and the company says 35 of the cuts will come from employees who volunteered for termination. Those positions will be eliminated Sept. 25.
Briggs decided in March to move or outsource production of lawn tractors, residential zero-turn mowers, snow throwers and pressure washers from the Burleigh facility, which is just south of the company’s corporate headquarters.
When Briggs announced the job cuts in June, the company estimated it would cut 228 positions by Aug. 28. A staffing firm used by the company also announced it would eliminate 120 positions.
In mid-August, the company revised its estimates and timeline, telling state officials it would cut 184 jobs. The date for the cuts was also moved to Sept. 25 because of the company’s pending Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
Briggs now plans to execute the remaining 65 job cuts on Nov. 25, according to a court filing in the bankruptcy case.
The company attributed the later date to supply chain delays, the impact of COVID-19, a business need to postpone the shutdown of one tractor manufacturing line and the need to gradually wind down production.
Briggs also said the change in job cuts was the “result of typical employee attrition and the reassignment of impacted employees to open positions.”
The staffing firm, however, has not revised its job cut figures at all, according to state records.
Briggs said its potential severance and vacation pay costs from the cuts has dropped from an estimated $910,000 to around $250,000.
